Category Archives: development

A Futile Defense of Act 181

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Democratic lawmakers are in the process of dismantling Act 181, the landmark Act 250 reform measure designed to encourage housing where it makes the most sense while protecting undeveloped land. It’s clear that the Act will be significantly pared back due to (a) political pressure from rural areas and/or (b) garden variety Democratic cowardice in the face of the slightest headwinds.

As they do so, Democrats will be throwing another of their core constituencies under the bus. If they’re willing to ignore the teachers’ union (not to mention principals and school administrators and, well, parents) by pursuing the Act 73 education reform bill, their rewriting of Act 181 is an abandonment of environmental groups. Yep, the Dems to seem to have a tendency to take their strongest supporters for granted. (See also: Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folk.)

Act 181 was one of the most carefully crafted, inclusive pieces of legislation to come down the pike. It was the product of extensive negotiation and collaboration across the full gamut of interested parties, from environmental groups to developers and business interests. It was meant to strike a delicate balance between development and conservation — a balance that’s now being undone in the Democrats’ retreat.

Act 181 had the added benefit of encouraging development where we need it the most: in settled areas with public services. I don’t know about you, but my definition of “workforce housing” doesn’t involve isolated homes deep in the woods. It means affordable housing where the workers and the jobs are located.

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Put Not Your Trust in Whackjob Rich Dudes

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The new cover story in Seven Days is an absolute classic in what that newspaper does best: Deep dives on Vermont issues, entertainingly written and festooned with telling anecdotes.

The subject is Raj Bhakta, wealthy founder of theif-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it WhistlePig Whiskey brand and archconservative Catholic. The story, compellingly told by Brian Nearing, covers Bhakta’s string of broken promises regarding the former campus of Green Mountain College in Poultney. (Funny how these Jesus Dudes have no problem going back on their word.) Six years ago he was seen as a, pardon the expression, savior for the campus and the area’s economy; now he’s cutting ties with the project in a way that promises to thoroughly screw the town and its taxpayers.

You should read the story for yourself. I’ll just mention a few of the low points of the Bhakta oeuvre, as documented by Nearing:

  • He first came to public notice as a contestant on Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice.
  • During a 2006 run for Congress in Pennsylvania, he “he rode an elephant into the Rio Grande accompanied by a six-man mariachi band” to draw attention to border security issues. (He lost by a two-to-one margin.)
  • After buying the GMC campus in 2020 with grand promises of redevelopment, he immediately started “rubb[ing] people the wrong way” in Poultney by dressing “like an aristocrat,” …”park[ing] his collection of luxury cars on the glossy floor of the former college gym,” and joining a public Zoom meeting “brandishing a cigar in front of a painting that appeared to depict him as Napoleon,” among other things.
  • Bhakta has “sparred frequently with state and local officials, even as the town sought to grease the skids for his project.”
  • During his ownership, the campus has fallen into disrepair and would, at minimum, require substantial investments just to restore any shred of usefulness.
  • The status of GMC’s extensive and valuable library seems to be a mystery.

And worst of all for Poultney, his current plan is to donate the entire shebang to some kind of nonprofit enterprise whose goal is shoring up Western civilization and instigating the “spiritual revival of our Christian faith,” which hey, if it was true to the Gospel I’d be in favor, but Bhakta’s Revised Version sounds like white nationalism. If he finds a sucker taker for the campus, the town would lose a major source of property tax revenue — and still be on the hook for providing water and sewer services, which would be a huge burden.

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Phil Scott Presents: Stupid Map Tricks!

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What you see above is a portion of Gov. Phil Scott’s latest masterstroke: A map of Vermont showing all the land that would get enhanced protections under H.687, the housing/Act 250 reform bill he vetoed last week. He thinks the map proves his point, that the bill goes way too far on conservation and not nearly far enough on encouraging development. Just look at all those yellow and brown areas! The Legislature is out of control!

However… I do not think his map means what he thinks it means.

This map reminds me of the Republican electoral maps showing who won each county. They show that the vast majority of the country’s physical space voted Republican, and help fuel stolen-election conspiracy theories. Truth is, Republicans win the big empty parts of the country while Democratic strength is mainly in population centers. And since our system involves one person, one vote — not one acre, one vote — well, the map is deeply misleading and proves nothing.

Same with Phil Scott’s H.687 map. It proves nothing.

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The Rule of Privilege in South Burlington

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When I picture South Burlington in my mind’s eye, I see the curb-to-curb traffic of Shelburne and Williston Roads, the shopping malls, the big parking lots, the land-gobbling subdivisions. I don’t usually think of the area pictured above — the southeastern part of SoBu, which is on the precipice of transformation from countryside to suburbia.

The area in that image is less than two miles wide, but a majority of South Burlington City Council lives comfortably within that frame. Three of the five councilors live within a mile of each other, and only one lives outside the city’s southeastern census tract.

Which explains why the letters section of VTDigger has recently been flooded by councilors and their allies slagging S.100, the bill that would ease regulatory restrictions on housing construction. The issue is literally at their front doors. The sprawl is oozing like The Blob around them, and they want to keep whatever power they have over the process.

It was little more than a year ago that South Burlington City Council voted to block development in large swaths of — you guessed it — the southeastern quadrant.

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I’m Sorry, But I’m Not Taking Smart Planning Advice From the People Who Enabled This

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VTDigger has seen a sudden flurry of letters and essays from residents of South Burlington, concerned that S.100, the state Senate’s housing bill, is going to turn their green and pleasant land into some sort of overdeveloped hellscape.

News bulletin: That ship has not only sailed, it long ago vanished over the horizon. Your town’s been an overdeveloped hellscape for years.

When I think “South Burlington,” I think the worst suburban sprawl in Vermont. Shelburne Road comes to mind, as does Williston Road and Dorset Street. As do subdivisions that devote vast amounts of land to high-maintenance lawns. The whole thing is, of course, designed around motor vehicles.

Not well designed, but designed nonetheless.

I know it’s a bit unfair to blame the current crop of SoBurbanites for the planning sins of their forebears. But just because they’ve got religion after a decades-long development bender doesn’t mean they can lecture the rest of us on how to address our housing crisis.

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“You Either Die the Hero, Or You Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain.”

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Hey, remember when Seven Days was the “alternative” newspaper in Burlington?

Well, if there was any doubt that the scrappy underground outfit has adulted itself into the establishment, last week’s “From the Publisher” column settled it once and for all. If you were to Google “White Privilege,” you might very well find a link to the piece.

The essay’s subject is the former Greater Burlington YMCA building at College and South Union Streets, now derelict and unused. It’s sad, but publisher Paula Routly sees it as emblematic of an entire city on the edge of an abyss.

Paula Routly is a real contributor to the city life and culture of Burlington. She and co-founder Pamela Polston are to be admired for what they have built. In a time when other print publications are shadows of their former selves, Seven Days is an invaluable part of Vermont’s media ecosystem.

But that column. Woof.

Whiny. Entitled. Fearful. Classist.

Lest you think I exaggerate, I call your attention to the last paragraph of the essay.

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